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As a Professional Edition customer, I am seriously disappointed with DotNetNuke technical support, especially when trying to solve a problem on my own. Since upgrading, the unknown support procedures are further complicated by multiple and dissimilar systems.
We are forced into read only mode for Gemini and dnn Forums and have to re-enter and re-research issues across disconnected private systems. Self-service and community experience sharing no longer exist when you become a PE customer.
Knowledge Base
Would someone please take the time to login as a PE customer to dotnetnuke.com? Click Support, DotNetNuke Support Network, then Knowledge Base. Type ‘localhost’ and click search. Not very helpful is it?
Add the fact that it is private means I have to make an extra effort to re-enter every issue to be searched. Ideally, the knowledge base should either implement ISearchable or make a role based, read only forum to be aggregated with typical forum searches.
Ticket System
Every time you submit a ticket you have to re-enter required fields. Please make the version, hosting, web farm and website address default to persistent values or even better as properties linked to my account profile. I realize this is petty, but it is distracting and frustrating when concentrating on the bug that was just experienced that I am trying to report in a separate system. Otherwise it works well.
Gemini
I learned my lesson in Gemini, my issue was removed (ignored) because it was related to PE. Now I understand that I should have used a ticket but I was already in Gemini looking it up to prevent duplicate requests or possibly resolve it on my own. Other than professional features, most issues apply to CE and PE.
Usually there is direct link from Gemini issues to DotNetNuke forum threads. Do forum posts generate a Gemini issues or vice versa?
Forums
I’ve noticed several posts that refer PE users to submit support tickets. Is it possible to setup a separate forum by role for the PE community to share? Might not be a good idea because most replies would suggest that we submit a support ticket.
Tech Support
The real problem is that PE customers are sending support tickets into a black hole. I would bet that many tickets are duplicate issues causing extra work (and grief) for tech staff when we should be able to look up and resolve things ourselves.
Trying to use multiple support systems (Knowledge Base, Gemini, Forums, Google, Bing) is a serious waste of everyone’s time.
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